Tuna Fishing Boom

THEY ALL WANT TO BE IN THE

spectacular success of the Van Camp-Japanese tuna-fishing X experiment off America Samoa, has started a tuna boom everywhere . th r e Pwfir. from Palmyra to the Nth. Queensland coast. Elsewhere in this issue is a note to the effect that Tonga is also interested And Japanese craft are known to fish regularly round NG and BSI waters.

Enormous quantities of tuna are known to be in the Pacific, and these fish can be caught provided the correct technique is used and the equipment is available.

This gratifying fact has emerged from widespread surveys of the area in the last couple of years, particularly by the US Fish and Wildlife Service research vessels, and the Japanese.

A late June “Fish and Wildlife” report from Honolulu indicated that one vessel, John R. Manning, just back from a cruise in the Line Islands, fouiid great quantities of tuna in the vicinity of Fanning Island and also Jarvis Island. Near Fanning, catches of 14 fish per 100 hooks laid out where made—a very good take. The Manning used the long-line technique with a stain less steel main line.

Also used was a “mid-water” trawl, towed at between 300 and 400 feet deep, in a region where the best of the big yellowfin tuna are believed to cruise and feed. The purpose was to catch samples of the food-fish of the tuna.

Perhaps the most successful ex ploratory voyage was that made by two vessels, the Alrita and the North American, on the technical advice of the US Fish and Wildlife Ser vice, which considered that an up welling of waters near Christmas Island indicated a favourable fish ing ground for tuna.

This proved to be the case and the two vessels, using Japanese long-line methods, with herrings as bait, landed an average of two tons of tuna per vessel per day, bring ing back to Honolulu early in March 220,000 lbs of fish, mainly yellowfin tuna but including skip jack, albacore, marlin and ono.

The yellowfin ranged from 14 to 150 lbs each, averaging 85 to 90 lbs.

The vessels worked the Christmas Island area for 30 days. They used 1,700-feet lines, buoyed at each end. each with eleven, three-fathom drop-lines fastened at intervals along the main line. Each 1,700ft. line thus sagged so that the middle hooks were 300 feet or more below the surface. A series of these lines was made fast, end to end, to extend over many miles of ocean.

About 850 hooks could be laid out each day by each vessel Hauling was done with mechanical aid.

Following the successful American cruises around F aiming and Christmas Islands, it is reported that considerable interest is being shown in the area by US mainland

and Hawaii-based tuna clippers. It is likely to become a major winter fishing area for the mainland boats.

The present activity at Palmyra is. no doubt, associated with this de velopment.

AS reported in PIM earlier this year, representatives of hotel interests in Honolulu flew there by chartered aircraft late last year to investigate the possibility of establishing a hotel at the now un inhabited atoll, with the idea of en couraging big-game fishermen to holiday there.

Late April, Captain Miller, owner of the small vessel Joyita, who operates a fishing enterprise at Canton Island, was recruiting labour in the Phoenix Group to take to Palmyra to rehabilitate the airfield there, on behalf of some American interests. At the same time a large tuna fishing organisation was re ported to be setting up head quarters at Palmyra.

Whether the planned air opera tions are to supply this tuna organ isation, or whether they are con nected with the Honolulu hotel owners’ plans, is not clear at the moment.

Whatever the explanation, it is certain that Palmyra is again com ing to life—the island, it will be recalled, is owned mainly by the Fullard-Leo family of Hawaii, ex cept for one islet that is under other Hawaii ownership. The Fullard- Leo interests have been taken care of for the past several years, since American forces withdrew from the former war-time air-staging base, by a caretaker, a retired Honolulu photographer, with, for a time, an assistant. They had been the only men on the atoll, apart from visitors from an occasional tuna boat from Honolulu who drop in from time to time to operate in the surrounding waters.

Members of the Fijian Rugby Union team, touring Australia, were visitors to the Australasian Methodist Conference in Brisbane in May.

The Methodists probably are the dominant religious body rn Fiji and Tonga. Two of the footballers, Samuela Domoni and Wame Sala bongi, preached in Brisbane churches. The Conference passed resolutions insisting that the primary and most important task of the Administration in Pa p u a-N e w Guinea is to raise the natives standard of lif*.